BOOKS of the WEEK

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 172, 16 April 1932, Page 17

BOOKS of the WEEK

Reviews and Passing Notes

TWO TRAGIC LIVES “The Master of the House,” by Radclyffe Hall (Loudon: Jonathan Cape); “Three Loves,”, by A. J. Cronin (Loudon: Gollancz). Those who have read Miss Radclyffe Hall’s “The Well of Loneliness,” will know .something of her artistic restraint in the. treatment of her scenes, her ease in enlivening her strange characters, and, most of all, her unusual ability to create • beauty out ot their despairs and hopes. In "lhe Master of the House” these powers arc magnified. The previous novel dealt with the flesh-and its desires, normal or übnorAial; now Miss Hall has turned to the spirit and depicted a Jove for man and beast in general that comes of understanding pity. “The Master of the House” is a strange book in many ways. Its hero . sees vision’s, and in moments of spiritual stress has a strange power in his hands. Hlfi life at times runs curiously parallel with that of Christ. He is born the son of a carpenter; he dies on the battlefield, crucified by his enemies. Miss Hall gives a clue to her meaning in the title: “Watch ye therefore; for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning.” The story is beautiful, and very intense for all its slow' tempo—a tempo that seems as right as the slow and sluggish climate of its setting, Provence. In “Three Loves,” Hr. Cronin’s second novel, the workmanship is on an almost equal level with that of Miss . Hall. Here again there is tragedy, shocking tragedy, but the strokes are swifter, more sickening and unutterably moving. The books are alike in at least two things—the strong progressive delineation of the single character that dominates the whole, a character that solidifies gradually into the clear and concrete; and the fact that In Oddi case the curtain falls on fresh black tragedy. But Dr. Cronin’s novel spreads itself on a more familiar landscape than Miss Hall’s. A coastal town at the west ot Scotland, where Lucy Moore lives married and with a son, is the scene for three parts of it. Lucy loses her husband, Frank, in ghastly fashion, which Dr. Cronin describes with consummate art ■and power. His creative imagination, so impressive in “Hatter's Castle,” is again notable. Lucy struggles to educate her son; he graduates, marries, leaves her, and she enters a convent at Brussels; but her spirit, now strong as steel, cannot bend to the demands of the Rule and she returns to England to collapse on a railway platform and die in hospital almost at once. In the first book and the last, almost free from sentimentality, Dr. Cronin is at his best. His twin themes are misunderstanding and selfishness, particularly the first, which is developed in the opening book with considerable force and ends it in a shuddering stretto. Dr. Cronin is a remarkable novelist, but his book could have been shorter. THE COCKPIT OF ASIA. .“Manchuria: The Cockpit of Asia,” by Colonel P. T. Elberton and H. Hcssell Tiltmau (London: Jarrolds). If a book should be timely, this new one on Manchuria, “red hot from the press,” would be difficult to parallel. It ..ileals with event® in a documented way io the end of January last, and in spite of some evidence of hasty construction, will enable the average man both to sec the tremendous importance of Manchuria find to read far more understandingly the cablegrams published from day to day. Its story at the present time is absorbing to a degree, and covers amply ’.he history of Manchuria, the storm-centre of the Far East, its economic, industrial and strategic importance to the Great Powers. The book is in fact designed to enable the public to hold an unbiased and, informed view of the present grave crisis. Comment upon the-work and its contents could run easily to many thousands of words —the best recommendation is to read the book itself. No one who pretends to an understanding or an intelligent interest in international affairs will delay in doing so. In the opinion of the authors, Manchuria will remain “the cockpit of Asia” for half a century to eome.

NOTABLE FICTION “Sale By Auction*” by Geoffrey Deuuis (Loudon: Heinemann); “Forward From Babylon,” by Louis Golding (London: Gollancz) ; “Miner,” by F. C. Boden (London: Dent). What Mr. Dennis has done is to produce his novel at precisely the right moment. At any other time it would be delightful enough, but at present, in the middle of an unabating flow of novels that run into a quarter of a million words, it is intoxicating. Mr. Dennis was last year’s Hawthorudon Prize winner, and he has returned in some respects in this fifth novel to the earlier manner of his first, “Mary Lee.” His style is definitely his . own, but elusive. Time and again In his language and treatment, he seems to resemble this writer or that; although actually to name them breaks the spell ot a subtle similarity. Perhaps the charm of his style is in its uniformity and smooth texture, a medium equal to anything and equally satisfactory for everything. No one who reads this new story of small town life in the last quarter of the 19th century will soon forget that urbane of auctioneering as a fine art, Mr, Fan-sliawe-Foyle, or the scandalous busybody and schemer, Miss Hyssop. These are two splendid characters in an entertaining and well-constructed novel. Mr. Golding's book was first published In 1920, but went quickly out of print and has now been re-issued to ride the wave of “Magnolia Street’s” success. It is a good book, but its author has advanced a long way since ii was written. It spreads itself too generously and has faults that do not appear in the later novel. But in spite of that, as a study of a boy’s reactions to his rigidly pious, Jewish environment, “Forward from Babylon” does not need the bush of “Magnolia Street.” Judged on its merits it is most interesting. .

“Miner,” by Mr. Boden, of which a second impression has reached “The Dominion,” is scarcely a book of the week. It is rather old nows by now, this powerful and shocking story by a rising young genius. Mr. Boden’s poetry attracted enough attention a few years ago for him to move from the pit-head at Chesterfield, where he was born, and had entered the mines as a boy of thirteen, to the university college at Exeter, where he has been for three or four years past. The present short novel, his first prose work, Is of great beauty, a dreadfully simple document of a young miner’s existence from childhood to early despair. FICTION IN BRIEF “A Hank of Hair,” by Temple Thurston (London: Cassell). - The theme of the eternal triangle is here told from a new angle, with all Temple Thurston's skill and charm. Vcnetia. the wonderful mannequin, her wealthy lover, and the man who loses all for her sake, are three vital people whoso adventures and loves are woven into a fascinating, thrilling story. “Four Extra Daughters,” by Joanna Maconeehy (London: Chatto and Windus). This is an unusually thoughtful and striking book by the author of “Vanishing Shadows.” Miss MaconeChy's peculiar wit and originality is equalled only by her weird handling of the macabre. Although it includes a murder, an aeroplane smash, and a startling final curtain, Miss Maconechy’s treatment is individual. The story is of the distinct loves of four very different women. “Distant Drums,” by Roger Cowles (London: Methuen). With alternate delicacy and ferocity, an American writer deals with Americans whose materialism needs no "rumble of a distant drum.” Through their private diaries, Mr. Cowles distils the malice, mirth and wit of seven California house guests. It is a novel performance, ful of ironic gusto and Uproarious buffoonery.

“Himself,” by Hazal Murphy (London : Methuen). This strong first novel deals with an aspect of the Irish character which has been little accentuated. Rory Quinn is not the witty, happy-go-lucky Irishman of fiction. He is vindictive and cruel, with one weakness —his passion for a tinker girl. The story deals with the tragedy of Rory’s marriage and his revenge. It is well told, and lightened by the love romance of Rory's daughter.

“Till Doomsday,” by Robin Temple (London: Ward, Lock). The dramatic story of a man whose divorced wife, an actress, seeks to allure him back to Iter and away from another woman with whom he has fallen in love.

“David’s Day,” by Denis Mackail (London: Hodder and Stoughton). A clever story, with, as the reader will discover, a clever and provoking title. Mr. Mackail is at the top of his form, and his new novel teems with humour, characters, situations and action. Scenes change quickly, and the tempo is most exciting. Bill Somerset, the artist, and his delightful young wife are two of the least, but most pleasant characters. “Headlines,” by Janette Cooper (London: Hamish Hamilton). A frank, sensational and extraordinary, story, founded on fact. It is the grim tale of a woman’s fight for her husband’s life, and is said to be "a terrible exposure of the methods of American ‘yellow’ journalism.” This is a book that might easily have unbounded success. PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS “Etliics,” by Nicolai Hartmann, Vol 1, Moral Phenomena (London: George Allen and Unwin); “The Philosophy of Descartes,” by A. Boyce Gibson, M.A. (London: Methuen). Professor Hartmann, who is professor of philosophy at the University of Berlin, published his “Ethics” in 1926. The present volume is the first of a threevolume translation. The work, on its appearance, was immediately recognised as an original contribution to the philosophy of moral experience; with its originality marked in two particular wavs —it is a vigorous interpretation of the data of ethics from the point of view of mystical realism, and is also a systematic application of the methodology of Professor Husserl to the phenomena of conscience, responsibility and guilt. Both the metaphysics and the method, exhibit the subject matter of ethics in a new light, showing the inner structure and objective self-existence of values as well as their dependence upon the ontological categories. Against Kant’s doctrine that the moral law, because discerned a prion, issues from reason and is a self-legisla-tion of the rational will, Plato’s different view is upheld. Professor Hartmann was greeted by an American reviewer two years ago as having had only one great predecessor—Aristotle. The present translation is by Dr. Stanton Colt, and has an introduction by Professor J. H. Muirhead. Oddly enough, Mr. Gibson’s work deals with the man who infected modern philosophy so strongly with the subjectivism from which Professor Hartmann, unlike Kant, quite definitely breaks clear, the purpose of Mr. Gibson’s book is to study “the father of modern philosophy m and for himself, and to show how. the problem of the relations between religion and science arose in tbe 17lh century and how Descartes set out to face it. While emphasis is laid on the religious prepossessions of Descartes, the work supplies more or less an account of nis whole philosophical system. "Hh. a glimpse into its historical and biographical background.

SHORTER NOTICES “English Painting, from the 'Seventh Century to tlie Present Day,” by Charles Johnson, M.A. (Jjondon: G. Bell and Sons). This fine new work by the offieial lecturer at the National Gallery demands what must be denied it—to be noticed at length. It is the first book on English painting that deals with the whole period from the Lindisfarne Gospels of the late seventh century to the many schools of .the present day. It is an admirable work, bound to be greeted as it deserves, and will undoubtedly rest on the shelves of every British lover of art. "Disarmament and Security Since Locarno, 1925-1931,” being the political and technical background of the General Disarmament Conference, 1932, by John W. Wheeler-Bennett (London: George Allen and Unwin). Mr. Bennett founded the Information Service on International Affairs, which in 1930 was incorporated in the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and is now Deputy-Chairman of the Information Committee of that organisation. He has been editor since 192 b of the annual volume of Documents on International Affairs. The present work is a valuable and comprehensive survey. “Does History Repeat Itself?” by 11. F. McWilliams, K.C. (London: Dent). With increasing frequency in recent years attention has been directed to the similarity between the present situation (with its immediate past) and the conditions, political and economic, that followed the Napoleonic Wars. Mr. McWiL liams has collected, consolidated and condensed the evidence with striking restnls. His book is a really stimulating document, with some excellent last sections devoted to the existing position and what must happen if history continues to repeat itself as it has. It is at the same time an explanation and a warning. “The Prisoner’s Soul—And Our Own,” Experiences and Observations from a Prison in Oslo, by Fivind Berggrav, Bishop of Tromso (London: Dent). I’nr ten years before becoming a bishop, the author if this small, but impressive, book was a prison chaplain in Norway. His book is a powerful, lucid study, and one that is intensely interesting, of the character and psychology of the. prisoner. More people will read it, it is to be hoped, tlrnn those engaged in prison work or interested in penal reform. It is a kind, human and convincing sort of book. The translation is by Laura Gravely., “Through tlie Box-Office Window,” Memories of Fifty Years nt the Haymarket Theatre, by W. H. Leverton (“Bill”), in collaboration with J. B. Booth, author of “Old Pink 'Un Days” (London* Werner Lauric). This volume of theatrical reminiscences strikes a new note--:! is from the point of view of the box-office window. Most of the great figures of the theatrical world of yesterday and today figure in its pages, and of the majority "Bill” always has a , good story to tell. The foreword to this entertaining volume is written by Miss Marie Tempest. “An Austrian Background.” by Nora Purtschcr-Wydenbruek (London: Methuen). This frank and delightful autobiography begins with a girlhood spent in the courtly atmosphere of pre-war Austria. which leads on to a romantic lorematch with an artist, their losses and struggles, their adventures, in London and England. Strange spiritualistic experiences which have influenced the author’s life are among the most interesting parts of an absorbing, unpretentious story. “Across New Guinea from the Fly to the Sepik,” bv Ivan F. Champion (Loudon: Constable). An account of the author’s two journeys, the first unsuccessful and the second successful, in company with Charles 11. Karius, Assistant Resident Magistrate in the Public Service of the territory of Papua, whose trip from sea to «ea across Now Guinea at its widest part won him the patron’s medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1927. “Harpoon,” by Henry Ferguson (London: Jonathan Cape). This account of life in the Ross Sea on a Norwegian whaler, “The Southern Princess, ’ has special interest for New Zealanders. The author is a young Australian of uncommon gifts. “Sarah Bernhardt,” Impressions py Reynaldo Hahn (London: Klkin, Mathews and Marrot). In her introduction the translator, Ethel Thompson, calls these memoirs “lightning sketches. Reynaldo Hahn, himself famous as. a composer, pays tribute to the divine Sarah in a. series of vividly-written impressions. He was continuously with her during the latter days of her triumph and no oue could be more fitted to give those intimate details that throw her charm into high relief.

BEDDOES AND TENNYSON. “Thomas Lovell Beddotw," and ‘‘Alfred, Lord Tennyson,” “Poets in Brief, a series of anthologies chosen by I’. L. Lucas, Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge (Cambridge: At the University Press). In the hope of introducing to a larger number of people the work of a poet who is still too little known, Mr. Lucas has opened his new series of anthologies with a volume on Thomas Lovell Beddoes. But before Beddoes is even considered, it must be said that Mr. Lucas has made a splendid first volume. The introductory essay, the selection of letters and of Beddoes’s work, close-packed with unearthly beauty, is a combination for which no one can be too thankful. In it is concentrated all Beddoes’s best work, a distillation, as it were, “down to one thick, rich minute.” The introductory essay, which leaves nothing worth-while to be said, is. like Mr. Lucas’s recent article in "The Observer” on the late Mr. Lytton Strachey (the finest of a rich crop of estimates), a perfect jewel of criticism. Beddoes is a fascinating subject, and his poetry, his amazing “pure poetry,” to borrow a title from George Moore, a source of exquisite delight. Mr. Lucas repeats himself just once. “I know no poet,” he says, “whose poetic moments are more crammed with poetry”; and, some pages later, “there is often more quintessential poetry, T feel, in three lines of his than in many pages of other poets not without repute.” Bed'does’s wild genius and the. appalling splendour of his imagery will cast a broader spell through this new volume. The second uniform work, on Tennyson, has a wise and provocative introduction. The least sentence in it is the one in which Mr. Lucas remarks that the only sane course is to enjoy the good in writers and forget the rest. His second anthology presents an equal though not so striking a cause for gratitude. Mr. Lucas has picked the best with human, modern, satisfying wisdom. NEW BIOGRAPHIES “The Man from tbe Volga: A Life of Lenin,” by F. J. I’. Veale (London: Constable) ; “Philip Sidney,” by Emma M. Denkinger (London: George Allen and Unwin). In writing a life of Vladimir Ulianoff, known better by his nom-de-guerre, Lenin, a biographer faces a more than ordinarily difficult task. Although he died eight years ago, Lenin’s life-work still remains, overhanging the future, in process of fulfilment. Not even now can the world know whether Lenin’s creation will ultimately sink or swim, whether it will expand or be engulfed. Some hundreds of years hence will historians agree that Lenin opened a gate or merely rattled one? The difficulty is that, it seems of particular biographical importance to know whether Lenin's life will really bear the harvest he sowed with ice-cold passion. ' But this is only one inconvenience for the short-range biographer. 2V less abstract one is that material for a life of Lenin, despite Mr. Vcale's level-headed and occasionally provocative book, is really quite meagre. In many respects, Mr. Veale has had to grasp at a shadow; although how successfully he has done this the reader will quickly discover. His book is by far the most satisfactory account that has appeared. Lenin is shown in Ins true colours—not as the caricature which so uianv ore willing to aceent. Miss Dcukingcr’s life of Philip hiduey is an impressive account of one of 'he great Elizabethans, who, because he was rather less spectacular than Drake and some of the others, w less well-known ana

familiar. Miss Denkingcr writes in a spirited and lively fashion, and has produced a vivid biography of a popular kind.

BOOKS ON ECONOMICS “Monetary Leadership,” by J. F. Darling. (Loudon; Ernest Bena, Ltd., pp. it), 2/0.) This is a reprint of several addresses advocating a return to bimetallism, combined with ah Empire currency aud super-bank based on lhe double standard. It is vague, sketchy and unconvincing, and it is extraordinary that a man who is a director of an important bank, and a practical banker himself, should be content to ignore the difficulties involved, or submit such indefinite proposals for practical consideration. To raise the value of the world’s silver, actual and potential, as contemplated, would probably be impossible, and iu any case would be undesirable; while it is not dear how a currency can be based on “the Empires vast resources, material and moral.” Nor does vague talk about “Nature’s provision” help the matter since Nature does not provide us with monetary systems. The proposals for a super-bank are crude, and so ill-worked out that it is not possible to consider them in this form, and the immense difficulties involved arc not met, but simply ignored. "England To-day.” by F. C. James (London: P. S. King and Sou, Ltd., 1932, pp. 238. 6/-.) This work is not, as its title might indicate, a complete review of the present condition of Britain, but rather a series of elementary observations on certain aspects of economics, with special reference to English conditions. It is somewhat over-simplified for the student, and hardly comprehensive enough to be of much value to the general reader, though interesting and well written as far as it. goes.

SOME UNUSUAL THRILLERS “At the Blue Gates.” by. Richard Keverne (London: Constable): “The ba.tal Five Minutes.” by R. A. J. Walling (London: Hodder and Stoughton): “The Click of the Gate,;’ by Al’ce Campbell (London : Collins). For those who take their mystery stories seriously, those high-brows of thriller-dom. a new tnlc by Richard Keverne, the man who sends murder packing and achieves excitement, without it. is always an event. This lutes, “tie, “At the Blue GateA” turns on the kidnapping of the small son. of an American millionaire. In an original and cunning construction, Mr. Keverne achieves a sinister atmosphere of mystery and uncertainty. Mr. Walling, however, tn Ins now thriller. “The Fatal Five Minutes, clings to tradition. He still believes in mysterious murder. But there is nothing traditional in his exciting handling of the events that, follow it. “The Click ofthe Gate,” bv the author of “Juggernaut, is. like Mr. Kevertie’s book, a pleasant change from the usual, and almost .is mystifying. It tells of the strange disappearance in Paris of a girl of Io and of the subsequent, search for her. It is an enthralling story, excellently told.